Ok, so I bought a used flute in Japan, and it`s called "Kaerntner" and it`s an ok instrument, not superb but not crappy, I still think my rented Yamaha students model was better, but has anyone heard of Kaerntner flutes? (I still have a problem typing Kaerntner...)

I`ve never heard of it. It sounds like an unreliable brand.

There`s something rather odd about a flute with a German-sounding name, but doing a goggle search comes up only with Japanese sites. My guess is that it is on a par with the name Pinyin and others (from China)in the West. The German-sounding name has been put on the flute as a marketing trick, and when a seller needs to resort to such tricks, then one should show some healthy suspicion.

BTW, you don`t really know how good a flute is until you see how reliable it is, AND what the repairer says about it and what he has to charge to keep it going.

I didn`t necessarily say it was definetly an unreliable brand but since I have never heard of the brand it seems like it would be one of those junk flutes.

Arak, the flute says it`s made in China, and it`s the cheapo flutes sold in Japan I`m guessing, but nonetheless, flute is just one of my hobbies, and it`s just that I want to keep playing along, and it`s not like I`m gonna be a musician or anything so I don`t really care much... Still I think I could`ve gotten a good used Yamaha here, but oh well, life goes on. I noticed that the 3rd octave doesn`t have much of a pretty sound, or maybe it`s that my oboe playing killed a bit of my embouchure, but the low register comes out very nicely and responds great to my vibrato. I do like this flute better than my friends rented Jupiter student model, probably the lowest of Jupiter flutes, but I don`t have much expierience so I can`t say whats better and whats not. It might be the matter of time that my flute falls apart, or it might be that it`s not that bad after all, but I`ll wait and see... Thx Arak for the trouble of searching.